BBC reports on suspicious destruction of Mariupol theater were co-authored by a Ukrainian PR agent tied to a firm at the forefront of her country’s information warfare efforts, reports Max Blumenthal.
BBC Broadcasting House, London. (Flickr)
By Max Blumenthal
The Grayzone
Before serving as a fixer and reporter for the BBC in Ukraine, Orysia Khimiak handled PR for a start-up called Reface which created what the Washington Post called a “reality distorting app” now serving as “a kind of Ukrainian war-messaging tool.”
According to her Linkedin profile, Khimiak was the director of PR for Reface until October 2021. While working that job, Khimiak says she built “long-term relationships with editors and media representatives.” She has also overseen a PR course for the Kiev-based Projector Institute, whose website currently greets visitors with the slogan, “Glory to Ukraine. We Will Win.”
With her wealth of media contacts, Khimiak now plays an instrumental role in shaping BBC’s coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war. She has even shared a byline with the network’s Lviv-based correspondent, Hugo Bachega, co-authoring reports focused on demonstrating Russian culpability for the bombing of the Mariupol dramatic theater.
Khimiak broadcasts her political bias in her Twitter bio, stating that she is “a fixer in Lviv for journalists for reporters who show honest image of Russian war against Ukraine. Ukraine will resist.”
Khimiak’s Twitter background references the “Snake Island” standoff which was widely reported by mainstream Western media outlets and heralded as a testament to Ukrainian military bravery. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 13 Ukrainian border guards “died heroically” defending an island base against they Russian Navy. “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!” were the soldiers’ final words, or so the story went.
The Ukrainian guards ultimately turned up alive as Russian captives. The entire story of courage under fire, including the Snake Island defenders’ famous last words, was a myth – one of so many stories fabricated or heavily distorted by pro-Ukraine elements that they have become impossible to count.
On the Twitter page of the PR agent-turned-BBC correspondent Khimiak, the phony Snake Island stand-off is still treated as a real historical event. On her Twitter timeline, meanwhile, Khimiak takes credit for the BBC’s reports on the destruction of the Mariupol dramatic theater. She and her co-author, Bachega, have yet to respond to a request for comment from The Grayzone.
The incident at the Mariupol theater represents one of the most suspicious events of the war, with both the BBC and CNN citing a claim by one local Ukrainian official claiming hundreds were killed inside the building, but producing no evidence to verify it.
CNN, BBC Rely on Single Official Pro-Azov Source
Russian forces have caused widespread destruction across Mariupol, where they have been engaged in intense street-by-street fighting with Ukrainian forces led by the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
However, as this reporter detailed, the Mariupol theater was controlled by retreating Azov militants who were desperately appealing for military intervention by NATO. Several evacuees have claimed Azov detonated the theater to create the impression of a Russian attack that might draw the West into the war. Meanwhile, video of the alleged Russian attack on the theater has yet to materialize, and images of the supposed rescue of survivors or mass deaths at the scene remain unavailable.
On March 25, nine days after the incident, CNN broadcast what it said was the first footage of the attack on the theater. The footage (seen below) was only 20 seconds long and showed a small group of civilians slowly ambling down a staircase to the ground floor of a building. A narrator can be heard behind the camera repeatedly referring to an airstrike but claiming that those on the first floor had survived.
The video appeared to have been shot some time after the attack, as none of the smoldering present in video taken in the aftermath of the explosion could be seen. That video, seen below and taken on March 16, shows a smoking building with no rescuers or any people on site.
CNN has also claimed that 300 civilians were killed inside the theater. The BBC also echoed the official Ukrainian claim of 300 dead, but acknowledged, “Communication with Mariupol remains difficult so it is hard to independently verify information.”
Both networks relied on just a single source for the dramatic allegation: Petr Andryushchenko, an advisor to the mayor of Mariupol who recently saluted the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion as courageous “defenders” of his city.
The official’s evidence? According to the BBC, “officials were able to check the death toll because they had a record of who was in the theatre before the missile strike and had spoken to survivors.”
Western media did not see fit to mention that Andryushchenko was likely far from Mariupol, as he recently acknowledged “that we are forced to move in order to preserve our intelligence network.” His boss, Mayor Vadim Boychenko, reportedly fled the city several days ago.
Curiously, partisan Ukrainian reporters claimed a day after the attack that everyone sheltering inside the theater’s basement had miraculously survived.
Also on March 17, Ukrainian government ombudswoman Ludmyla Denisova stated on Telegram: “The (theatre) building withstood the impact of a high-powered air bomb and protected the lives of people hiding in the bomb shelter.”
Four days before the incident, Mariupol locals informed Russian media that the theater was to be the site of a false flag operation aimed at generating Western outrage and triggering NATO intervention.
One day after the incident took place, civilians evacuated from Mariupol testified to Donbas-based media that Azov fighters blew the theater up as they retreated. They went on to detail how Azov used them as human shields throughout the fighting, even sniping at them as they tried to escape.
Interview with #Mariupol refugee??
You know what happened at the drama theatre?
–They blew up the drama theatre
So, it wasn´t a bombing but an explosion?
–Nothing landed on it, it exploded from inside
Did Azov let ppl leave the city?
–They didn´t let anyone leave#Ukraine #Russia pic.twitter.com/jKQDj8BLWj— Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli (@ProfessorsBlogg) March 22, 2022
Among the most curious aspects of the incident of the theater was the disappearance of all vehicles from the parking lot in front of the structure hours before the explosion occurred. It seems that though they had been removed in order to avoid being damaged by the expected blast.
Ukrainian PR Agent-Turned-BBC Fixer Hand Picks Local Sources
Ignoring the accounts of evacuees from Mariupol who said Azov militants had destroyed the theater before retreating, the BBC’s correspondent, Bechaga, and his fixer, Khimiak, initially turned to official Ukrainian sources and a resident who was not present at the theater on the day of the supposed attack.
On March 17, the day after the theater incident, Bechaga and Khimiak reported that “according to Ukrainian authorities, [the theater] was bombed by Russia…” Their only local source said she left the theater one day before the building was destroyed – when most, if not all those on the grounds appeared to leave. “We knew we had to run away because something terrible would happen soon,” she told the BBC.
The BBC reporter and PR agent-turned-fixer co-authored a March 22 follow-up article quoting two local witnesses who said they were near the theater when a massive blast occurred. Both delivered cinematic accounts which open source intelligence analyst Michael Kobs called into question.
For its part, the BBC presents an eyewitness whose story also sounds more like cinema. Animals are always the means of choice in storytelling to warm the hearts of the audience for a character, because whoever is good to animals is good per se. But that's just a side note. pic.twitter.com/LMqArdYD5B
— Michael Kobs (@MichaKobs) March 23, 2022
The male witness said he “saw plenty of people bleeding.” However, in a time when nearly every person carries a smartphone, video of the harrowing scene he described has yet to surface.
Finally, the BBC turned to McKenzie Intelligence, a private contractor founded by a former UK military intelligence officer, to hypothesize that a Russian 500-pound laser guided missile was used to destroy the theater. But as the open source analyst Kobs pointed out, “the center of destruction sits right in the middle of the stage, so two dumb bombs can’t possibly be to blame.”
While the BBC seems intent on legitimizing the official Ukrainian narrative of the theater incident, other mainstream outlets have quietly moved on. “Even now, the fates of most of those people [inside the theater] remain unknown,” the NY Times noted in passing on March 21.
BBC Fixer/Correspondent Worked for Top ‘Ukrainian-War Messaging Tool’
The BBC’s choice of an overtly nationalist Ukrainian public relations agent to guide its coverage of the war highlights the network’s absolute alignment with NATO’s objectives.
Before her gig with the British state broadcaster, Khimiak handled public relations for a Kiev-based start-up that created an AI app enabling users to superimpose their faces on the bodies of famous people. Called Reface, the app has become “a kind of Ukrainian-war messaging tool” disseminating anti-Russian push notifications to millions of users, The Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, “reality-distorting apps like Reface are a way for users to absorb messages they might otherwise tune out. People have their guards up with political news on those platforms… But they lower them for an immersive experience like face-swapping.”
Reface now says it is engaged in a “viral battle against #russianterrorists.”
Turned off the #Reface app in #russia. According to our analytics, its audience couldn't care less about the destroyed houses & women & children killed in #Ukraine.
Read about our viral info battle against #russianterrorists & #StandWithUkrainehttps://t.co/aO8Skrfg35— Reface (@reface_app) March 17, 2022
As part of its efforts against Russia, Reface said it has blocked Russian users from accessing the app. Further, “everyone who opens the app sees a message to support Ukraine” along with a banner “with information about the real losses of the Russian army.” A watermark with the Ukrainian flag and the hashtag #StandWithUkraine is layered over each video that appears on the app.
Reface says its employees have joined “the territorial defense units and volunteers, and several teams have also joined the cyber troops to fight Russian propaganda.”
For her part, the former Reface PR director Khimiak-turned-BBC correspondent/fixer has not been reticent about Ukraine’s Russian adversaries. “I just can’t accept opinion that not all Russians are bad. All I feel is pain and hate, because their silence is a consequence of this war,” she declared on Twitter in reaction to a video depicting rescuers trying to save a young girl from rubble.
Though BBC proclaims in its own statement of values, “Trust is the foundation of the BBC. We’re independent, impartial and honest,” its hiring of a Ukrainian public relations specialist who has confessed to hatred of all Russians to arrange its coverage of the war in the country is hardly surprising.
As The Grayzone reported in February 2021, the British broadcaster’s non-profit arm, BBC Media Action, participated in a covert UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) program explicitly designed to “weaken Russia.”
As seen below, UK FCDO documents revealed that BBC Media Action proposed working through a private British contractor called Aktis to cultivate and grow pro-NATO media in conflict areas like the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, now the focal point of fighting between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian military.
The BBC’s secret information warfare initiative had turned the network into an arm of British intelligence, operating as an actor in a foreign conflict which its broadcast media arm was simultaneously claiming to cover in an objective manner.
Now, the BBC has shed any pretense of objectivity by hiring an overtly nationalist Ukrainian public relations operative to shape its coverage of one of the most heavily disputed incidents in a war filled with cynical deceptions.
The editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath, The Fifty One Day War and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.
This article is from The Grayzone.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Good stuff Max sounds about par for the course! We are well into the, Never believe what you see. phase of those living in an alternate universe attempting to fool the rest of us.
Be wary very, very wary. I’m assuming from this point forward that the U.S. intelligence community, at least a large portion of those at the very top, have been in bed with their Allies since before JFK was killed.
The significant difference now being that certain countries have the ability to monitor the planet world wide at close to real time. What could go wrong?
Thanks CN
UK Column News has regularly reported on the BBC Media Action Group, nominally a charity, that is running Ukraine media propaganda for them. “Trust is the foundation of the BBC. We’re independent, impartial and honest.” Sick joke. They are the embodiment of the opposite of all three attributes.
Having had little other choice, I have listened for many years to the totally impartial reporting of embedded correspondents of the Biased Broadcasting Corporation with total scepticism.
I remember the one time a leading embedded correspondent faced death from a rocket in Northern Afghanistan (there were seriously injured and possibly deaths). They were not classed as collateral as they were hit by good old US ‘Friendly Fire’, a clip the BBC did not show again.
I remember seeing on BBC TV the White Helmet in Syria cradling a little boy as he carried him out of the rubble. Carrying the boy into the waiting ambulance, the White Helmet declined to hand him over to the paramedics – I still see their sickly dumbfounded faces – and would not put him down until they reached the hospital bed. To the BBC, this was just one courageous saviour, though I don’t recall seeing this clip again, either, or learning from BBC’s thorough reporting whether or how soon the boy recovered.
And now, having concluded the BBC was good only for the weather and the local news, I find that even the local news is now obsessed with saving Ukraine and defeating the evil Russia. Everyone has to be concerned about the innocent refugees whose greatest danger, from reading this excellent analysis, is however from being used as human shields rather than from deliberate Russian targeting. Why, does no one ask, are the Russians not strafing them as happened to fleeing refugee columns in WW2? Germans used to remember why they did not want to get into wars again.
As for “Glory to Ukraine”, you must see Britain’s defense minister Ben Wallace (“Let’s kick Russian ass as we did in Crimea”-n War) on discussion 25 March on 21stcentury wire.com. No, Britain will never forgive or forget what the Russians did to our bold and glorious Light Brigade.
Clearly it seems as though Ukraine, or should I say the US and Nato, had prepared extensively for this war well before it started, including all the elaborate PR and theatrics. TPTB even arranged for a professional comedic actor to play the role of their marionette president, and entranced American media consumers fall for it just like a Saturday Night Live performance hosted by Stephan Colbert. I wonder how many, even more lethal, staged “false flags” will be attempted before these world class criminals and con artists are forced to surrender? Heaven help even their American and Nato creators should they somehow win this farce of a conflict.
I have great respect for the investigative prowess of Max and his ability to tell truth to power. He exposes the info no MSM dares to touch. Thank you Max for your persistance and diligence in getting out the truth.
Grayzone is one of the best.
Peter,
I admire Max too, but not because he tells truth to power. The powerful already know the truth. The great thing about Max is that he makes the truth available to the powerless, like you and I.
Great reserch and reporting. Thank you!
Here’s another piece from Counter-punch. I could barely read it.
Putin, like them, is a moral coward. With his war on Ukraine, however, he has exceeded even his own record of cravenness by ”bombing hospitals, schools, theaters, and apartment buildings.” But of course!
Jilted by beautiful Ukraine (Helen), Putin (Paris) blew his chance for reconciliation. During the build-up of troops on Ukraine’s border prior to invasion on February 24, he had the world’s undivided attention. He could have accepted Ukraine’s demurral and asked if she would consider just being friends. NATO could have blessed the arrangement by promising not to admit Ukraine into its ranks for the foreseeable future. Putin could have asked the U.S. to immediately begin talks to revive the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty abrogated by Trump, and resume negotiations for START III (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), meant to drastically cut each nation’s nuclear arsenals. He could have tried to accelerate negotiations with the U.S. to prevent NATO from installing new, intermediate range conventional missiles in Poland or the Baltic states in exchange for non-intervention in Ukraine.
‘Words fail me!’
But rather than continue admittedly slow and frustrating negotiations with the U.S. over NATO membership and the disposition of arms and troops in Central and Eastern Europe, Putin leapt into the arena of war and sought to take Ukraine by force. That effort failed, and now we witness the slow, deadly slog of war.”
This is frankly abject.
But it is not without precedent. There is a long history of the pseudo-marxist left morphing into the ultras of the neo-con stripe. You could name them: Sidney Hook, Irving Kristol, James Burnham, et al. Today’s neo-cons were seeded by the NewYork Trostkyists .
And after Ukraine had so sweetly made nice-nice with a more civilised Mr. Putin, the negotiators and all the beautiful guests could have repaired to the ballroom where everyone would be served ice cream and cake by flying pink and blue unicorns.
When we lost Alex we lost Counterpunch
Absolutely!
Putin tried diplomacy for 30 years, to no avail. USA never engages anywhere with reciprocal diplomacy. The last diplomatic event between the US and Russians was in the Cuban missile crisis. We haven’t had a Jack Kennedy since. Never will.
Yes, I saw that, but knew better than to read it. Counterpunch has few of those types of writers, and I avoid their stuff. In fairness, they publish things by writers doing good work on this subject, but writers I formerly liked, like Paul Street, I cant stomach anymore, with his obsessions over Putin and Trump. There was time not long ago (around the ascendancy of Trump, actually) when I would read almost every article, every day. Now there are days I don’t even visit!
Putin is the new Stalin! He’s worse than Hitler! He’s worse than Saddam Hussein! He’s worse than Napolean! He’s worse than Vlad the Impaler! He’s worse than Ronald Reagan! Etc! Etc!…
It is fascinating and revealing to compare the Western media’s coverage of the alleged Russian bombing of the theatre in Mariupol with the far smaller amount of publicity in August 2018 when a Lockheed Martin laser-guided missile struck a school bus in Saada Province, Yemen. In The Guardian: “The bomb dropped on a school bus in Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition warplane was sold to Riyadh by the US, according to reports based on analysis of the debris. The 9 August attack killed 40 boys aged from six to 11 who were being taken on a school trip. Eleven adults also died. Local authorities said that 79 people were wounded, 56 of them children.” But that was a good missile , of course, not like the evil Russian bombs. Almost no-one here in the UK took any notice of this US-Saudi atrocity and who remembers now?
Cool pic of Leonardo di Caprio in the Call of Duty movie.
DeCraprio is part of the spy culture inserted into Hollywood. He works with CIA like Affleck and Daimon and Clooney.
hxxps://www.spyculture.com/
…Angelina Jolie and Gloria Steinen, too.
Extremely interesting. One wonders in light of all this, who are Biden’s advisors exactly? Because he seems to have accepted all of these lies and unsubstantiated, mythical reports hook, line and sinker. There is no hesitancy or skepticism or intelligence in our government, that perhaps, Azov, for example, could be the perpetrator of the false flag events. The damn War on Terror bled our country dry economically, it’s falling apart, just look around at it. Now we will sacrifice the health and strength and welfare of our own citizens to fight that war and if we’re still around when it’s over, rebuild the whole damn place. And we will get nothing in return for all that. No building back of America, just an unconditional total rebuild of a place called Ukraine on the other side of the planet.
And like I said up above, can Washington and its Nato lackeys REALLY want a bunch of murderous Nazis to win this war? If so, explain that to me. How does that work to anyone’s advantage except the fascist monsters who are presently out torturing folks and posting the photos on the web? How is your basic ethnic Ukie stiff, let alone the oppressed Russian minority, better off with with Zelensky and that mob in control of everything? If not, tell me why we are supporting them to the hilt with millions in cash and billions in weapons, training and military intel? Besides the usual contrived crap about restraining “mad man” Putin from luxuriating in a human blood bath! I think that role more closely describes Lord Biden’s motives, which he seems to have shared with his several recent predecessors in the Oval Office.
Quote, “because he seems to have accepted all of these lies and unsubstantiated, mythical reports hook, line and sinker. There is no hesitancy or skepticism or intelligence in our government, that perhaps, Azov, for example, could be the perpetrator of the false flag events. ” Unquote. The President of the U.S. is NOT in charge of any of these events or decision making. He is a sock puppet, who’s job is to publicly rubber stamp the orders he’s given on a daily basis. If he was capable of independent thinking, he would never have reached the chair in the W.H. Their Govt has supported and trained the Azov militants, just as they financed/trained/supported ISIS, (and still do, to this very day) provided they carry out their orders. It’s cheaper to fight a war with expendable bodies, rather than American bodies, who’s folks will protest when the body bags come home.
In the UK we expect no less from the BBC, they lie as naturally as they breathe (our oxygen).
Christopher Black on the case for JUST WAR:
“In my opinion Russia acted in accordance with international law under Article 51 of the UN Charter for the following reasons…”
hxxps://newcoldwar.org/the-legality-of-war/
Max, this propaganda from the UK/US/NATO led West is like another
volume to your, The Management of Savagery, a must read for
Establishment media’s role in deception. And didn’t John
Pilger say in a first Consortium News piece that this would be an
information war of propaganda?
Your article put teeth to his words of wisdom.
Much thanks
BBC, thy name is mud.
Underneath the Kobs picture of the lady with the dogs we read of a “500 lb . bomb” The picture shows the KAB 500 L and the warhead is given as 250 KG. which is 550lb so near enough. The suggestion was that 250Kg wasn’t enough
Looking it up I found one site give the warhead as c.450 Kg or almost half a short ton. 990lb.
hxxps://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/KAB-500L
other sites give the weight as 500 KG and there are varieties of warhead. the wiki source gives a 380Kg warhead.
I post because it doesn’t quite match the article. There are several possibilities for the discrepancy .
hxxps://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/KAB-500L
China will never need to pay Russia for protection in the Persian Gulf.
$8 trillion since 1976 protecting the oil flow from the Persian Gulf that fuels much of the global economy.
(PDF Document)
hxxp://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/us-miiltary-cost-of-persian-gulf-force-projection.pdf
China is already a Socialist country, so maybe the Chinese will not mind paying Oil People to make oil.
Fossil fuel subsidies are a staggering $5 tn per year
A new study finds 6.5% of global GDP goes to subsidizing dirty fossil fuels
By John Abraham
August 07, 2017
hxxps://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/aug/07/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-a-staggering-5-tn-per-year
The B-52 guzzles about 46,000 gallons in a single mission.
hxxp://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v38y2010i6p2816-2825.html
For every soldier on the battlefield, it takes 500 gallons of oil per day
So much for the concern of Global warming. L.O.L.
this is BBC reporting from Kyiv .
Bowen is a well known and experienced reporter. You can make up your own mind about the quality of the reporting.
hxxps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60874223
Great research, Max! So, NOT the first use of Reface? I’ve tried to keep track of the earlier ‘pregnant woman dies’ story, or stories. Same suspect MSM there, showing no trace of irony that her doppelganger [aka UKR social influencer] and ‘her’ baby lived….
‘…A pregnant woman and her baby have died following the Russian bombardment of a maternity hospital in Mariupol last week.
Pictures and video of the woman, first taken by Associated Press journalists, were shared across social media and news outlets last week. Her death was first reported by the AP.
‘The woman, who has not been named, was seen on a stretcher following the bombing, as she stroked her lower abdomen. Rescuers quickly rushed through the debris to get her to another hospital.
‘Surgeon Timur Marin at the hospital told the AP that the woman had a crushed pelvis and a hip detachment. Medics delivered the baby via cesarean section, but unfortunately, the baby showed “no signs of life,” he said.
‘The doctors, then, focused on the woman.
‘”More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said.
‘She died as a result of her injuries.
‘Medics did not have time [or motive?] to get the woman’s name amid the chaos of the [sic] airstrike or before her husband and father came to pick up her body. Medics said they are grateful that someone came for her as she would otherwise likely end up in one of the mass graves.’
Sooo, doesn’t Hippocratic Oath’s ‘Do no harm’ include interdiction v. Dr’s LYING?
hxxps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/14/pregnant-woman-baby-die-after-russia-bombed-maternity-ward
hxxps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/14/pregnant-woman-baby-death-mariupol-maternity-hospital/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F365113e%2F622f69bf9d2fda34e7d0907c%2F6097399bade4e210584bf9be%2F17%2F74%2F622f69bf9d2fda34e7d0907c
Well, lots more liars. Just pared the list down….
Please allow me the freedom to paraphrase what Khimiak tweeted, in order to illustrate the extreme moral hypocrisy of the Western response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in comparison to the muted response we saw a year ago last March when the Israelis mercilessly attacked Gaza because the Palestinians were defending themselves from Israel’s illegal occupation of their land:
I know war is brutal, I’m trying to stay human and kind, but when I see such videos I just can’t accept opinion that not all Jews are bad. All I feel is pain and hate, because their silence is a consequence of this war. It’s just devastating.
And to cap of the hypocrisy, Biden will give Israel an extra billion dollars to this Apartheid state as payment for the Iron Dome rockets it used in that horrible attack, which killed hundreds of civilians and created thousands of refugees bombed from their homes. Why hasn’t the US Jewish Community spoken out against such atrocity?
Sam, Thank you for your bold and accurate comment. I wholeheartedly agree with you. You have spotted the tip of this iceberg….in a sea full of icebergs. I too am awake….let’s wake up the others.
One must choose one’s words very carefully these days but it seems not unreasonable to me to think that a culture whose basic premise is that its people are a uniquely “chosen” race must of course treat everyone else as “rejected.” Even more horrifying is that other destructive cult that sprang from this terrible mindset, in which its members were, likewise, special above all others, “saved”, while everyone else was simply unworthy. So, no harm in killing them & stealing their belongings, enslaving their children, all that good fun stuff. Heck, the “Good Book” they both share tells ‘em to have at it, because their clearly psychotic Invisible Man in the Sky loves ‘em all to pieces.
Thank you Max. Excellent reporting, as usual.
The first casualty of war…never more apt.